A fine catch by Tim Worstall who rightly scoffs at this passage in today’s Telegraph report on the (Westminster) government’s plans to “tackle” alcohol consumption:
[M]inisters are expected to unveil measures to increase the price of alcoholic drinks according to how strong they are. This could be done through higher taxation per unit, minimum pricing per unit or simply higher levels of duty for strong drinks. Ministers will also encourage companies to produce weaker alcoholic drinks.
Emphasis added. As Tim reminds us, the Office for National Statistics reported there were, officially-speaking, 9,031 “alcohol-related” deaths in Britain in 2008 and so these mysterious “medics” appear to be suggesting that increasing the price of liquor will “save” more lives than are “claimed” by drink every year.Prime Minister David Cameron is known to have sympathy with the idea of minimum pricing, which medics say could save nearly 10,000 lives per year if set at 50p per unit.
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